


Dagger in the Eye

by tinydipper



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: F/M, I Tried
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-02-09
Updated: 2017-02-11
Packaged: 2018-09-23 00:43:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,192
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9632120
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tinydipper/pseuds/tinydipper
Summary: Vax meets someone new.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I was only on ep 20 when I started writing this I had no idea vax/keyleth was even a thing. It won't be ignored, that's for sure.

            She loosed an arrow. It flew straight and true, and lodged itself precisely in the middle of the target, fifty yards away. Satisfied, she pulled another arrow from the quiver at her belt and nocked it. She steadied her breathing and focused on the target.

A voice rang out from beside her, “You know, you won’t be able to aim like that in a battle.” The sudden noise startled her and she loosed the arrow. It barely hit the outside ring of the target. She turned to face the man who had disturbed her. He wore a hood pulled up, obscuring part of his face, but she saw the wicked grin he wore.           

“And what do you know of battle?” she retorted, scowling.

“More than most,” he replied, still grinning. She scoffed and drew another arrow from her quiver. He held out a hand to stop her and she lowered her bow, curious. The man drew a dagger from his best and flipped it in the air nonchalantly, catching it gingerly by the blade. He took a glance at the target, then rested his eyes on her. Hardly taking a split second to aim, he hurled the dagger at the distant target. The dagger struck true in the center of the target, next to her arrow.

Still scowling, she turned to face the man, who was still grinning. “Is that meant to impress me?” she questioned.

“Yes,” he quipped.

Ignoring him, she strung her next arrow and took aim. She spent less time aiming than she had before, and loosed it within seconds of nocking it. It struck on the edge of the centre mark of the target and the next rung out. The man laughed. “Keep practicing,” he said not mockingly, but with encouragement. The archer took this as mockery and made a disgusted noise.

“What’s your name?” The man asked. The archer contemplated giving him a false name, but decided against it.

“Amelia,” she replied frankly.

“I’m Vax’ildan,” he hesitated for a moment, “Vax.”

“A pleasure, I’m sure,” Amelia replied defensively.

“My sister is an archer.”

“Is that so?” she said, slyly taking another arrow from the quiver at her hip.

“I think you two would have lots in common. Do you want to meet her?”

“Not particularly,” she grunted.

“I have a challenge for you,” he proposed, “how about you aim, take your time with it, but then look at me while you shoot.”

“That sounds ridiculous.”

“Just try it.”

She sighed and bowed her head for a moment. She stood straight and nocked the arrow, pulling the bowstring against her cheek. She steadied her breathing and took aim. At the last second, she glanced over and caught eyes with Vax. She loosed the arrow, and struck the target at the center. Despite herself, she smiled and let out a small laugh.

“See?” he said cheerily, “Not that hard.”

“That’s a neat trick,” Amelia sighed. She put her head through the bow, stringing it to her back, and headed towards the target to recover her arrows. Vax jogged to fall in step with her.

“How long are you going to be here?” He queried.

“I’m going to stay until dark.”

“Can I give you another good idea?”

Amelia paused and furrowed her eyebrows at him, “And what would that be?”

“Let’s get some wine,” he said with gusto, his constant grin spreading wider on his face.

Amelia sighed, “Why would I want to do that?”

“Because I find you interesting,” he said simply.

Amelia chuckled, “I _am_ pretty interesting.”

They reached the target and Amelia pulled the dagger from it. She handed it to Vax, then pulled her arrows out and put them one by one into her quiver. She began to walk back to the edge of the archery range, Vax close by.

“So?”

Amelia walked in silence with him beside her. She grabbed her satchel and strung it across her shoulders. “Where did you have in mind?”

“Right this way,” he replied, smug grin thick on his voice.

She followed Vax through the crowded streets of Emon until they reached a brightly lit tavern. He picked a table inside the moderately crowded tavern and left to procure drinks. She sat awkwardly at the table, suddenly nervous. What was she doing with this perfect stranger? What did he want? Probably what all men want, more than likely. She decided she wasn’t going to give him any of that. Vax soon returned with a bottle of wine and two glasses.

“A whole bottle?” She asked, surprised and somewhat daunted.

“If you won’t finish it, I will,” he replied frankly. She could deem that he was telling the truth. He sat and poured two very full glasses of wine. He slid a glass to Amelia and she picked it up and immediately took a long draught.

“I’ll finish it,” she said.

“So,” he postured after taking a drink of his own wine, “Where are you from?”

“Here,” she replied simply, “grew up in Emon.”

“And what do you do?”

Amelia’s voice grew grave as she said, “You don’t want to know what I do.”

“Oh, I _really_ want to know what you do now.”

“Really, you don’t.”

He met her eyes and squinted at her, “Fine, you’ve got your secrets. I can respect that.”

Amelia breathed a silent sigh of relief as she took another long sip of wine. “And what do you do?”

“Have you heard of Vox Machina?”

“That band of heroes or whatever they’re known as? Sure.”

“I’m part of that.”

Amelia raised her eyebrows, “Impressive. I guess you _have_ seen some fighting then.”

“Too much, I think,” he said heavily; the first sign of anything but smug charm Amelia had seen that afternoon.

“You know,” he said, changing back to a grin, “we used to be known as the Super High Intensity Team.”

“The Super – what? That sounds stupid.”

“Spell out the first letters.”

There was silence for a beat as Amelia spelled it out in her head. She laughed, harder than she had intended, “Shit.”

“Shit,” Vax agreed.

“Why did you change it?” She asked, still laughing.

“We wanted to be taken seriously.”

“Well, Vox Machina sounds pretty badass.”

“I thought so too.”

“So what exactly do you guys _do?_ ” Amelia asked.

“Help people, fight things. Do things people don’t want to do,” Vax replied simply.

“Well, in that case, want to do my laundry?”

Vax chuckled, “Only if you ask _really_ nicely.”

“Oh please, Vax, save me from the clutches of laundry,” she said mockingly, placing her face in her hands and batting her eyelashes.

 

The crowd in the tavern grew as night fell, voices filling the air and the gentle playing of a small band in the background. The atmosphere was joyful, and the couple’s conversation grew less inhibited as the wine kept flowing. They talked about their childhoods, about their friends and family, told stories of exploits and uncanny circumstances. The hour grew late as they finished their second bottle of wine and Amelia proposed she should return home. Teetering slightly, Vax escorted her to her doorstep, the conversation still joyous. With a friendly goodbye, Amelia entered a door to the side of a bakery which led to a small apartment above. Vax stepped back to the edge of the street across from the building, pulling his hood over his head. He watched through the window as a candle was lit on the second story. He saw Amelia come to the window and open it slightly, letting the cool autumn air enter the apartment. Smiling, Vax returned to Greyskull Keep.

Vax lay restless in his bed that night. With the moon high in the sky, he headed to the garden within the gates of the keep. Using his dagger, he cut a single red rose from a bush. He made his way through the near-deserted streets of Emon, heading for Amelia’s apartment. Slipping into the shadows, he climbed up a drainpipe along the side of the building onto the overhang over the bakery on the first floor. He approached the unlit window, still slightly ajar, and left the rose on the windowsill. The room beyond was dark, but with the moonlight he could make out a figure asleep in the bed near the window. He hesitated, wondering if the act was too tacky, or if she would know it was him. He scrambled down the side of the building and made his way back to his own bed, to rest more peacefully than he had in months.


	2. Chapter 2

The next day, Vax scouted the range where he had found Amelia. There was no sign of her. He went to her apartment and pulled the rope by the door. He could hear the muffled ring of a bell from inside, but there was no answer. He entered the bakery and approached the man pulling a fresh loaf from the brick oven.

“Excuse me, have you seen the woman that lives upstairs?”

The baker placed the loaf by the others before turning to Vax. He studied the rogue, dressed all in black with the hood of his cloak pulled down.

“Amelia? No, but I could leave a message for you.”

“Tell Amelia her friend at Greyskull Keep was looking for her.”

The baker nodded and turned to pull another loaf from the oven. Attention broken, Vax left the bakery to wander the streets for some time.

Vax came back that night at her window. The window was shut and no candle was lit, even though it was still early in the night. However, there was a single red rose in a vase on the desk below the window. He smiled and retreated into the night.

He returned to her window for three successive nights, arriving later and later into the night each time, yet there was no figure to be seen under the covers of the pristinely made bed. No messages arrived for him at the Keep. Vax feared this woman had simply slipped away from his life. He decided to go one final night. Rain fell in a heavy downpour over Emon, raindrops falling hard with a patter on the hood of his cloak. Through all of its protection, it was soaked through by the time he reached her apartment. He climbed up to her window three hours past dusk. A candle was lit. Crouching low on the roof, he peered in through the window. Amelia was at the desk, scribbling furiously on a piece of paper with charcoal. The lightly wilted rose was still in the vase on the desk. Vax moved closer and saw that she was drawing. He smiled as he realized she was drawing him.

With a nimble hand, he knocked lightly on the glass. Amelia jumped in her seat with a gasp. Her eyes widened when she saw him. He waved and gave her a grin. Without taking her eyes from him, she flipped the drawing face-down before she opened the window.

“What the hell?” She sputtered.

“Hi Amelia,” Vax said softly. He glanced around the room beyond her then said, “Are you going to let me in?”

“Why don’t you use the door?” Amelia chastised.

“I’m already here, please let me in, the rain is terrible.”

Amelia pushed the papers to the side of the desk and threw the window open all the way. She moved the chair back as she stepped away to let him in.

Vax stepped lightly onto the desk, then landed on the floor with a soft _thump_. He turned back and closed the window behind him, leaving a small puddle at his feet.

“Give me your cloak,” Amelia said sternly, hand outstretched. He unfastened the clasp and handed it to her. She walked over to the crackling fireplace and draped it over a chair in front of it to dry.

“So you draw?” Vax asked, gesturing to the desk with his other hand running through is damp, long black hair.

“Oh, so you saw that,” Amelia replied meekly, “I’m not very good, I just do it for fun.”

“I’ll be the judge of that,” Vax said as he moved to the desk and flipped over the drawing of him. “Oh! Look at that,” he held it up next to his smiling face, “It’s me!”

Vax thought Amelia might faint as her face lit up as red as a cherry. He saw dread and embarrassment in her eyes. “No! No way, wow,” she sputtered, “the likeness is uncanny! I wasn’t even trying— “

Vax gave her a disbelieving look as he wiggled the paper a bit, still held next to his face.

Amelia sighed. He could see her hands shake slightly from the adrenalin of sheer embarrassment. “Yes,” she said, defeated, “Yes, it’s you, okay? I was thinking about you.”

“Funny, I was thinking about you too.”

“You wouldn’t be at my window if you weren’t.”

The embarrassment seemed to subside as she snatched the paper from his hand and put it face-down again on her desk. She looked him up and down, “Come on,” she said gently, “you’re soaking wet, let’s sit by the fire.”

She moved the wooden chair from the desk, placing it to the side of the fire. She took Vax’s cloak from the cushioned chair and draped it over it. She sat down in the now slightly damp chair and Vax sat across from her, crossing one leg over the other.

“Oh,” she said suddenly, before conversation could start, “You probably want some wine.”

“Absolutely.”

Amelia rose and rummaged in the small kitchen in the studio apartment before procuring a bottle from a cupboard. She found two cylindrical glasses and poured wine into each of them. She handed Vax his wine, “Here you go.”

“Thanks.”

She sat again in the chair and leaned forward, elbows on her thighs, and stared into the fire.

“Where have you been?” Vax asked after they had both had a few sips of their drinks.

She looked at him quizzically, “You knew I was gone?”

“I came to check up on you,” he paused, “I wanted to see you again.”

She smiled and looked down at her glass, “I wanted to see you too,” she took a drink from her glass before she began again, “I was working.”

“You left Emon?”  
            “No,” she said, body receding into itself.

“You don’t like talking about work much, do you?” Vax asked.  
            “No,” Amelia admitted, “It’s complicated.”

“Can’t be much more complicated than what I do.”

Amelia frowned at him, “It’s work I don’t speak about to just anyone.”

“Am I just anyone?” Vax flirted.

“For now, yes.”

Vax leaned back against the chair, “Well, it has to be something with your bow. And don’t think I didn’t see your belt with the daggers hanging by the door. You fight.”

“You could call it that,” Amelia hinted.

Vax leaned forward in the chair and squinted at her. Pointing, he said, “You’re a thief aren’t you? With a guild.”

Amelia leaned back with a huff, “Yes,” she said wearily.

“What guild?”

“I can’t tell you.”

“All right, I get that,” Vax withdrew, smiling. “Thanks for telling me.”

“You guessed it, and I can’t lie,” she lied.

The couple stared into the flames for some time before Amelia asked what Vax had been up to; something mundane.

“Running some errands. We usually don’t stay in Emon for very long.”

“Like what?”

“Well, we stopped at Gilmore’s Glorious Goods. Surely you’ve heard of it,” Vax said, grinning.

“Yes, sometimes I go to see their enchanted items,” she admitted, “but I’ve never bought anything. I wonder if they’re even going to let me in anymore.”

“Oh, they’ll let you in, especially if you mention me to Gilmore,” Vax said briskly.

“Oh?”

Vax leaned in, as if to confide some secret to her, “I think Gilmore is in love with me.”

Amelia chuckled, “Well, I don’t know about that, you’re not much to look at.”

“Hey,” Vax said, mockingly wounded, “I am a beautiful man.”

Amelia grinned into her drink as she studied his face. She took a long sip, then said, “All right, I see it now.”

Vax smiled, flattered by this exchange, a brush of pink coming to his cheeks.

Softly, through the walls of the apartment, came the slow song of a violin.

“That’s my neighbor,” Amelia explained. Her head bobbed back as it seemed a sudden idea struck her. She put her glass on the ground and stood. She reached out her hand to Vax and said confidently, “Dance with me.”

His raised his eyebrows in surprise as he studied her for a moment. He smiled wickedly and placed his glass on the floor. He took her hand, standing. He strung his free hand around her waist as she draped her arm over his shoulder. They began to sway slowly to the beat of the single song, feet moving barely an inch at a time. They looked into the distance, never at each other, but over time they began to dance closer and closer together. She placed her forehead against his shoulder, smiling. He rested his chin against her head, smiling. And so they stayed, swaying back and forth, listening to the sweet song of the muffled violin. The music eventually stopped, as the hour had grown late.

Vax pulled back and looked at Amelia, arm still around her waist, hand still in hand, “I should go,” he said softly. Before she could reply he leaned in, breaking the distance between them, and kissed her gently on the lips. He began to pull back, but then kissed her again, as if it were an afterthought. Without looking her in the face again, he turned to grab his cloak. He threw it around his shoulders and buckled the clasp.

Amelia stood there, entranced. She saw Vax open the window to leave when suddenly she rushed over and grabbed his arm, turning him to her aggressively.

He thought she was going to slap him.

She reached up and grabbed his face with both hands, and pulled him down into a kiss. This was much more passionate than the one before, and Amelia didn’t notice as she held her breath. She pulled away as she took a steep breath inwards. Vax’s face still in her hands, she met his eyes. She didn’t feel the look of desperation on her face, as if this action was the most important she had ever performed. Vax smiled at her with his wicked, charming grin. She smiled back widely, beaming. She gave him another small kiss before releasing his face.

“Come back again,” She said, as if in a dream.

Vax was still smiling as he pulled his hood up over his head, obscuring his eyes. “Oh, I will.”

He stepped up onto the desk and left through the window.

            A minute passed before consciousness caught up to Amelia. Rain had splattered in through the open window onto her drawings. She rushed over and slammed the window shut with haste before they were ruined.

            “Why doesn’t he just use the damn door,” she muttered to herself.


End file.
